


Pass The Porridge, Please

by JoanneValjean



Series: You Are Not Alone [2]
Category: Les Misérables (2012), Les Misérables - All Media Types, Les Misérables - Schönberg/Boublil, Les Misérables - Victor Hugo
Genre: A/U, Babysitting, Children love Javert, Javert Cannot Understand Children, Javert is Bad at Telling Fairytales, Marius and Cosette Have Two Daughters and One Son, Multi, Post-Seine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-04-26
Updated: 2013-04-26
Packaged: 2017-12-09 14:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/775071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JoanneValjean/pseuds/JoanneValjean
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Marius and Cosette drop their three young children off for a day at Javert and Valjean's house at 55 Rue Plumet.  The children love Javert, unnaturally so.  Javert tries to entertain them, failing epically.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Pass The Porridge, Please

**Author's Note:**

> FOLLOW ME ON TWITTER:
> 
> https://twitter.com/JoanneValjean

A sharp knock pounded at the door, followed by the sound of running little feet. After a few minutes, the knock sounded again, this time, more urgent and at a faster acceleration. Javert groaned, raising his tired head from Valjean’s chest. He’d forgotten, he realized with a sigh. Today was the day that he and Valjean had to take care of Marius and Cosette’s children, a task that he was not up to do, not today, at least. It wasn’t that he resented the children. No, in fact, he secretly loved the children very much. It was just that, well……..they liked him. 

 

They liked him a little too much. 

 

Constantly, the three young children would hang on him, saying, “Play with me!” or “I want a story, Grandfather!” Oh, he would just collapse and give in to the three children. Their pleading eyes and sweet faces were too much to resist for him. Poor Valjean! Even though the children liked “Grandpapa” very much, they liked Javert much better, much to the surprise of everybody but Javert himself. Cosette and Marius loved their three offspring, as well, but one could only take so much of the three little terrors children.

 

Javert opened the wooden door, and he was immediately knocked to the floor by two tiny bodies that flung themselves at him.  
“Éponine! Fantine! Get off of him!” Cosette scolded, pulling a disgruntled and kicking Fantine off of the befallen old man, whom she handed baby Georges, who was cradled in her arms. “I’m so sorry, Father. I do not know what has gotten into them.”  
“It….It’s fine, Cosette, ma cherie. They’re only children that love their Grandfather,” Javert replied, rubbing nine-month-old baby Georges’ thin brown hair. Georges looked just like his father, freckles and all, even after only nine months of life. No doubt about it, he was his father’s son….after all, he looked and acted just like Marius. The two other children, however, were much different. Fantine was almost a tiny replica of her mother, with her long, flowing blond hair and her shimmering, crystal-blue eyes. She behaved like a young lady, even though she was only at the tender age of four-years-old. Éponine, however, was a different child all her own. Her demeanor was fiery and brave, while her twin sister, Fantine, was a quiet little thing that followed her sister in everything….together, they were a duo, the former being the leader. She was also the only child that looked nothing like mother or father-in fact, it could be said that she looked like Valjean-which was strange, considering that Valjean was not blood related.

 

“Well, um, if you don’t mind, we have to, er….go!” Marius stammered as he slammed the door shut, leaving behind a surprised Javert and a barely-awake Valjean.  
Valjean rubbed his eyes and staggered over to Javert. “Who was that?” he asked.

 

“Marius, Cosette, and the kids,” Javert replied, laying Georges into the wooden bassinet that lay in the corner for the bi-monthly visits. Valjean smiled-Javert, in particular, liked it, because it made him melt-and picked up squirming Fantine and Éponine.

 

“Mas belles,” he grinned, “how are you today?”

 

“Good, grandpapa!” Fantine replied politely. “I got a new dress!” Valjena looked at his granddaughter, and noticed that it was true. The dress was a light, dusty shade of rose petal pink, with little lace at the end of the sleeves. It looked, quite literally, like something that Cosette would choose for herself to wear. Oh well, like mother, like daughter.

 

“It looks very pretty on you!” Valjean replied, ruffling Fantine’s hair. “Éponine, you look very pretty today, as well!”

 

Éponine frowned as she tugged fruitlessly on the sleeves of her dress that was an identical clone of the one that her sister wore. “I don’t like it,” she announced. Valjean laughed, and Javert could not help but crack a grin. Éponine said the boldest things! And, in truth, it seemed like something that her namesake would have said had she been in the same position.

 

“I wanna play with Grandfather!” Fantine suddenly whined, squirming relentlessly in Valjean’s arms until he let her down. When at last she was pulled up onto Javert’s lap, she demanded, “Tell me a story, Grandfather!”

 

Her sister chimed in, “Yes, Grandfather! Story!” Javert and Valjean shared a look that said, in Javert’s case, "I don’t know any stories!" and, in Valjean’s case, "You’re in deep shit now."

 

With a sigh, Javert started his story, “Once upon a time, there was a girl named……..well, I do not know her name, it doesn’t matter, so let’s call her Goldilocks………who made the stupid decision to go into the forest without her parents. She came upon a tiny little cottage and went inside the house of people that she didn’t know, which is stupid. She ate from three bowls of porridge which had varying degrees of heat, which was also stupid, because who knows what’s in that porridge? Anyway, then she went up the stairs of the cottage and slept in one of the three beds. Then, some bears came home and scared her, so she ran away. Point of the matter is, do not go into the houses of strangers, do not eat strange porridge, and do not sleep in stranger’s beds. The end.”

 

Éponine furrowed her brow. “What happened to Goldilocks?”

 

“Um….” Javert stuttered, trying to come up with an acceptable excuse. “She got what was coming to her….well, to be frank, she was eaten by one of the bears.”

 

Fantine’s blue eyes grew wider as she gasped in horror. “Terrible!”

 

Valjean snickered. “Nice story, Grandfather.”

 

“Shut up,” Javert hissed in his ear.

 

Fantine got off of Javert’s lap and tugged on his boot. “Come plaaaaay with me!” she cried, tugging his boot off and holding it close to her chest.

 

“Not now, Fantine,” Javert said bluntly, grabbing his boot back. “It’s time for your nap.”

 

“PLAY WITH ME!” Fantine screamed, throwing herself to the ground in a tantrum.

 

Éponine decided to join in with her sister and also proceeded to sing, in synch, with her sister, “PLAY WITH US! PLAY WITH US! PLAY WITH US, GRANDFATHER!”

 

Javert sighed. It was going to be a really long day, that he could already tell.


End file.
